Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl

Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl is a 2008 computer game which runs on the ZDoom engine. It was mainly developed by Stephen Browning, with ACS scripting by Mike Watson and James Bauer. It is the prequel to the total conversion Action Doom, but has a different style of gameplay. Whereas the first Action Doom was inspired by sidescrolling games, Action Doom 2 instead simulates a, heavily influenced by games such as ' and ' but in a first person perspective, with a unique cel-shaded visual style and a heavy emphasis on storytelling.

Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl was followed up by an expansion pack called Urban Brawl: Dead of Winter in 2013, once again developed by Stephen Browning with help from help from Nash, Lil' White Mouse, Xaser, Graf Zahl, and Esselfortium. On December 10, 2008, Action Doom 2 was one of the winners of the 15th Annual Cacowards that year, with the expansion pack similarly receiving another Cacoward in 2014.

An updated version of the total conversion for GZDoom was released in 2021 under the name of Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl Reloaded, which contains both the original game and the expansion pack plus numerous enhancements.

Gameplay changes
As mentioned, Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl is largely based off classic beat 'em up games, and incorporates many gameplay features from them. Because of this, the gameplay is largely oriented around close quarters combat, as most of your attacks and weapons, as well as your enemies', are melee-only. There are however several ranged weapons that the player may acquire as well. Much like its predecessor, Action Doom 2 features branching paths the player may take throughout the levels, although this time, it also features multiple endings depending on the player's choice during the game.

Custom enemies

 * Punk Guy
 * Fat Construction Guy
 * Purple Jacket Punk
 * Goth Chick
 * Shirtless Thug
 * Redneck
 * Knife Thug
 * Knife Throwing Thug
 * Kickboxer
 * Ninja Chick
 * Suit Guy 1
 * Suit Guy 2
 * Suit Guy 3
 * Uzi Guy
 * Wolf
 * Maggie
 * Hugo
 * Tommy LaCoata
 * Bebop
 * Rocksteady
 * Redneck Andy Fox
 * Ralphjis

Custom allies

 * Flynn Haggar
 * Gary Johnson (Unused)

Custom weapons

 * Pistol ("Sarah")
 * Uzi
 * Board
 * Pipe/Bent Pipe
 * Brown Bottle
 * Whiskey Bottle
 * Fists
 * Brass Knuckles (replaces Fists)
 * Cheetah Fists (Cheat)
 * Dragon Fists (Cheat)
 * Chain
 * Knife
 * Baseball Bat
 * Wrench
 * Fire Extinguisher
 * Katana
 * Chainsaw
 * Shovel
 * Shuriken
 * Sledgehammer
 * Etruscan Statue
 * Taser
 * Pool Cue
 * Blunderbuss

Levels
Urban Brawl Dead of Winter
 * WINTER1: Urban Brawl: Dead of Winter
 * WINTER2: Urban Brawl: Dead of Winter

Soundtrack

 * MAP01: First/So Macho
 * MAP02: Groovin'
 * MAP03: Intro/Bad Ending
 * MAP04: Pump'd/The Right Track/Boss Encounter
 * MAP06: The Standard
 * MAP07: Nowhere But Up
 * MAP08: Wood Sheddin'
 * MAP09: When Hugo Crazy
 * MAP10: The Ultimate
 * WINTER1:
 * WINTER2:

Development
Development on Urban Brawl began in 2004 just months after release of the original Action Doom. Instead of egregious advertising, like the original, the project remained entirely unknown to the community until the day of release. Urban Brawl features a distinct comic book art style with colorful scenery and characters rendered entirely in. The game's enemy roster was drawn on paper, scanned and coloured. Similar to Beat 'em ups, many characters are a mere palette swap of previous enemies. Instead of using Doom's engine to calculate light, the lighting is texture based. Objects and walls cast black shadows when seen in sunlight and blue textures were used to simulate a moonlight appearance.

The game can run as a standalone either with version 2.3.0+ of ZDoom or with its own included executable, requiring no IWAD to run.

Outside of gameplay, the story is told mainly through black and white, -style cutscenes inspired by . Darknation wrote most of the dialogue and cutscenes, while Mike Lightner contributed the voiceovers. The story can branch off in different paths depending on the player's actions, and features multiple possible endings.

The soundtrack was created entirely by Ralph Vickers.

Versions
Action Doom 2 was available in two forms: A free download, and a that could be purchased from the official website for $9.99 through. The CD version came with its own case and box art, as well as several exclusive bonus levels including a survival zombie war set in an urban environment. The sale of the CD version has been discontinued as of May 20th, 2010. As a result, the bonus levels have been released for free on the Action Doom 2 website.

A remastered version of the game was released on August 10, 2021 for GZDoom and Zandronum, it features improved combat mechanics and multiplayer co-op, survival and deathmatch support by sluggard, numerous bugfixes and various other enhancements such as ultra-widescreen compatible cutscenes and visually retouched maps.

Promotional offerings
Scattered throughout each level of Urban Brawl were unique specialty items which awarded the player 100,000 points. Additionally, discovering all 9 unique items revealed to the player the official contest website and how to win. Winners were...
 * Dylan Sanchez
 * Robert Yarborough
 * Mike Ewer

Endings
There are six endings:


 * You meet Peter Crisp, but he has a trap laid out for you. You get arrested and thrown in prison for life. (You blindly follow the bartender's advice to take a taxi - or you use a warp cheat to the final stage, skipping other critical triggers.)
 * In the subway, you lost the lead to your daughter. (You entered the subway without first obtaining the lead, and didn't get knocked out.)
 * In the abandoned house, you defeat Hugo without encountering the cop, and marry Mary and have two kids. You think you see your daughter after ten years. (This requires obtaining a secret on a previous level.)
 * You hit Peter Crisp while he is carrying your daughter. They both fall down from the skyscraper. The protagonist realizes his fault, but he can't deal with depression.
 * You meet Peter Crisp and defeat all of his goons. However, your daughter turns against you.
 * You meet Peter Crisp, defeat all of his goons, and shoot down the helicopter. (Missing the helicopter causes you to stand still and get gunned down, and is not a special ending in itself.)

Credit section lyrics
The credit section starts after the show of an ending. There you are shown all the development team, where each developer is drawn on a separate picture. The background music features some rap:

A vigilante - time to up the ante,

'Cuz understand G, you can't kill what you can't see

And if you're coming full force realize is what you can be

is in a body bag if you plot against me Roll over, look, it's like I told ya

You played a coin against me and now it's game over

Straight up - you made me answer the call - and saw

that you made a mistake when I entered this brawl

This music also plays in the Subway Station level, but without the voiceover.

Trivia

 * The initial release of Urban Brawl included a separate executable, called . This is a renamed build of ZDoom with a custom icon, but is otherwise identical to stock ZDoom. Later updates removed the executable so users could simply use the version of ZDoom available on the website. is based on ZDoom version 2.2.0 (r748) dated August 7, 2008.